Athens Shore Excursion: Athens and Piraeus Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour

I bought 72-hour pass. There were three routes. I went all around. Even I used the city route 3-4 times. I recommend this product. Ivan

Fun bus top route around the main sights of the city with good English commentary and Greek music. Would recommend it to anyone new to Athens

Pickup at Piraeus port was close to the cruise terminal. Everything suited us fine. Driver and guides were excellent.

Great tour. Would not spend to much time touring the city. Spend it at attractions. They need big fines or jail time for the graffiti jerks.

There is so much history in and around the city, but the bus, although super easy to find and board, which provides headphones, says very little on the first 15 or so of the 18 stops. And, if there is information being shared, it is difficult to find a working outlet on the bus in which to plug your headphones in. It was a pleasant ride, but with a simple updating of the recordings, it could be so so much better. We found little value other than the transportation, and taxis and the metro are much cheaper than this bus.

I had been to Athens before, but much has changed since my last visit. The Hop On bus was air conditioned thankfully as Athens was in the grip of a heat wave and it was brutally hot (40C+). We boarded at the cruise ship terminal and got to see the Lion Coast which was lovely and worth the visit. Athens city is big, crowded and full of graphiti damaged buildings which is a shame. Many of the stops on the city line are for shopping locations including the Plaka which was heaving with tourists. We had bought tickets to the Acropolis Museum (HINT: BUY tickets to the museum online and pay for them in advance. The line outside is 90 mins long in stifling heat and no shade. Buying online gets you access without the line wait). The museum was the last stop on the Red tour so we were on the bus for over an hour. A big city is a city so if this isn't your thing, skip the tour as there isn't much to see just grafitti covered buildings and grid locked traffic. The Hop On bus however did keep to their stop schedules and I was impressed that every stop had a Hop On agent there to answer questions and sell tickets. This was a great service for people who did not know the city. I would recommend the Hop On bus option if you want to see the Athens coast.

Transportation from the port was sufficient to get to Acropolis, but was quite unhappy to see a competing identical service priced at $38 for a family of 5. Viator advertised the “lowest price”, but charged $108 for same service. If you’re on a cruise, no reason to buy ahead of time — all 3 bus options are waiting to use at 1/3 Viator’s inflated price.

We waited for over 30 minutes for the Red Hop on Hop off bus at Piraeus port. We were hounded by street vendors and taxi drivers

Lady helping passengers terrific, driver very good through the narrow winding roads. Good way to get an overview of Athens.

As we have experienced in other countries, hop-on hop-off double decker tours are great. The bus was clean and nice but the locations for the hop-on and hop-off stops were not clearly marked on the map we were given, nor on the street stops. We ended up using taxis for the remainder of our tour.